Local Village shop - Uses?

[Jason_Fisher]

My local newsagent closed down due to ill health of the owner. It is in a great village location and used to get alot of trade. There is now a co-op, tesco express in the village. Do you think the shop could still do well if re-launched as a newsagent? What other uses could there possibly be? A video store? The reason i ask, is the rent is low and it has great space above (for an office) and my younger brother is looking for work and he has worked in small local shops since leaving school, and i am now actively looking for office space. I thought kill two birds with one stone. Use upstairs as my office and run a small shop downstairs to give him some work and hopefully make a little profit, doesn't have to be huge. I would really appreciate your advice on this one? Are newsagents still doing a good trade since the Tesco Expresses? And if so, then would there be any other good trades to use the shop for? What do people in a village of roughly 2,000 houses need that they don't really want to travel for? Its great location and the rent is cheaper than most of the office spaces in the area so would be great to make a use for the shop.

 

[crossdaz]

Depends on the location I would say. A good bakers or sandwich shop can do well in the right place but you'd have to have some experience - it's not something you can just do.
I don't think there is any mileage in the paper shop idea - regardless of where it is?

 

[Jason_Fisher]

Yeh i thought that, i think paper shops are a thing of the past. I used to love taking the dog down to the paper shop when it was open, i was always greeted better than at the Tesco Express, and it was a friendly place, but now small tesco expresses have opened they sell everything a paper shop does and more. Its about the bottom line i guess.

There is a co-op, tesco express, chippy, post office, chinese, pizza shop, butchers. Would anything else work in a village, not looking to make millions, just looking for it to pay for itself and pay a wage to my younger brother and give me the office space i need really. maybe a video/computer games store?

 

[Jason_Fisher]

If i had a paper shop, what add-ons could i perhaps use to make it a little more profitable? I mean quite a few people had their papers delivered and tesco doesn't do that.

 

[filtuh.com]

combination local produce outlet (farmers market type stuff, local crafts) and receiving point for deliveries and later collections for local commuters. Maybe coffee shop as well?

How about divide it up and lease desk space for home workers who don't want to actually work at home?

 

[Jason_Fisher]

Some good ideas there. I forgot to mention a fruit and veg shop, so that and the butchers pretty much cover the farmers market apart from the crafts. Not sure if a coffee shop would work, do you think a coffee machine in the newsagents would be a good idea? For takeaway coffee. People on their way to work pick up a paper and coffee?

I like the idea of dividing it up for desk space, however i don't know if there is a market for that in my village. Maybe an internet cafe? I know alot of people who go to the library to use the computers. I could even have games consoles for people to play on in the shop for a price, and sell drinks and snacks?

 

[Jason_Fisher]

Do you think people used to rely on delivery of papers or do you think they dont mind going to pick them up from tesco?

The receivin and collection point for commuters? Do you mean when something gets delivered and they are not in then it gets delivered to me and then the customer picks it up? Is there a market for that locally? How would you charge?

 

[Jason_Fisher]

Regarding deliveries and drop offs...do you mean, give the address of the shop to everyone in the village and if they do any online shopping, they give the company my shop address and the online company deliver to me directly while the customer is at work and then they can come and collect from me because its local when they finish work on their way home?

How much can i charge for this?

 

[Vaheed Akhtar]

I have a question. If the paper shop was REALLY that busy, then why didn't they sell it? It would make no sense what so ever to just close a busy business down!

My old man has had shops for 40 years and it took him a good 20 years to set up what he has now - a successful business with a massive turn over. That's not a boast, it's a little insight into how long it takes to find the right shop. I would strongly advise you not to open a paper shop there -because your public footfall will never cover your costs of maintaing newspapers and magazines. The cost, per week, for having a paper service is, at best, around £40 per week. You sound like you're out in the sticks - so can imagine that being 20-40% more. Personally, I don't think you will ever sell enough to cover your initial costs, never mind what else it will cost you to run the business.

Why don't you sit outside of the premise for a week and make a not of what sort of people pass the shop. Old/young/middle/male/female/school kids/mothers....etc - this will then help you narrow down your ideas.

for example, if you notice a good glut of school kids and middle aged people - then how about a little sandwich shop/cafe and a sweet shop? sell sweets/crisps/drinks on one side and Paninis, jacket potatoes, hot and cold drinks and sandwiches on the other.

 

[Jason_Fisher]

That sounds a good idea, there is a school nearby so could sell sweets and food and drink. There is a cake shop next door and a hairdressers the other side. I like the ideas of selling paninis and big jacket potatoes etc, i could get some bacon and egg and sausages etc on the go in the mornings for people on their way to work for cobs, with coffee etc.

My Ex Girlfriend's uncle owned a cafe and the mark-up on food was unreal! I could even do a delivery service to the local industrial estate at lunch time.

 

[Jason_Fisher]

I dont know if i could make that profitable in a village of roughly 2,000 households though. I think i could make about £1 on a cob, i would need to sell 100 a day to make a good living £500 a week. Would chrisps and drinks etc make that up?

 

[Jason_Fisher]

Them shops that sell goods on ebay for people, do they work well? I know alot of people who don't like the hassle of doing this that could potentially use this service. 2,000 households, would it be worth it? I could even advertise in other local villages?

 

[longleaf1]

If you are trying to kill 2 birds with one stone as you say, you are looking at deliveries etc etc, are you going to have enough time to concentrate on the business you are going to be using the office for??

 

[Morgan]

Childrens shoes?

 

[filtuh.com]

Regarding deliveries and drop offs...do you mean, give the address of the shop to everyone in the village and if they do any online shopping, they give the company my shop address and the online company deliver to me directly while the customer is at work and then they can come and collect from me because its local when they finish work on their way home?

How much can i charge for this?

I'm not sure of the operations, but I would envisage people paying a joining fee for an individual or family account, say £20 per person per year, then per delivery charge (say £1) for ad-hoc or monthly payment plans if they get a lot of stuff. MBE charge £120 for 6 months small mailbox.

You'd need to develop your ops manual, a sign up process would involve taking a photo eg via webcam for fast authorisation on pickup, and a single account holder can nominate an extra person for occasional pickup.

Combine this with the ebay style shop and make sure you open late (somewhere between 7pm and 9pm should be ok) as well as saturdays and maybe a brief sunday opening window.

This could be fairly easily self-flyered around nearby homes whilst walking the dog, and is the kind of thing you could advertise nearby as well - it's a fairly unique service.

I'd definately suggest having both a pro-active and a reactive signup process. The reactive one can be for someone who's ordered something, realised already that they can't be at home to receive it, or missed a delivery, then just give out their name at your address, then quickly get on the phone to you or fill out a web form notifying you that the item will be delivered. You can charge more for reactive deliveries, say £5 instead of £1 but if they then join up to the yearly membership then you'll discount that £5 and even give them the first delivery free.

Have things such as email notification when a delivery has arrived, or optional SMS. In the future you could even consider developing an email dropbox service like tripit uses for the customer to notify you of what's incoming and set up a dashboard, which you update once the product has been received.

 

[cjd]

It's very, very difficult to survive as an independent shop in a village these days; the reason the rent is low is because it's so hard.

It is possible though but it takes imagination, skill, a long time and hard work. It sounds like you haven't got a bakers or a deli. A good one of either might work - depending on your population demograph, but it would have to be good to compete with the brands.